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Wilde's story is narrated by a friend of a man called Erskine, who is preoccupied by the Hughes theory. Erskine had learned the idea from one Cyril Graham, who had tried to persuade Erskine of it based on the text of the sonnets, but Erskine was frustrated by the lack of external historical evidence for Willie Hughes's existence. Graham tried to find such evidence but failed; instead, he fakes a portrait of Hughes in which Hughes is depicted with his hand on a book on which can be seen the dedication from the sonnets.

This is a story from the Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories collection.

"The Portrait of Mr. W. H." is a story written by Oscar Wilde, first published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1889. It was later added to the collection Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, though it does not appear in early editions. An enlarged edition planned by Wilde, almost twice as long as the Blackwood's version, with cover illustration by Charles Ricketts, did not proceed and only came to light after Wilde's death. This was published in limited edition by Mitchell Kennerley in New York in 1921, and in a first regular English edition by Methuen in 1958, edited by Vyvyan Holland.

La historia relata el intento por descubrir la identidad del Sr. W.H., el enigmático dedicatario de los Sonetos (Shakespeare). Se encuentra basado en la teoría de Thomas Tyrwhitt, quien señala que los Sonetos fueron dirigidos hacia un tal Willie Hughes, representado en la historia como un niño que se dedica a la actuación, especializado en representar mujeres en la compañía de Shakespeare. Esta teoría depende de la suposición de que el dedicatario es también el Noble Joven, quien es sujeto de múltiples de sus poemas.